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SEVERAL years ago, in an article titled "Assessment Literacy," I expressed the view that the school improvement efforts under way at that time would not be productive unless and until educators became masters of the basic principles of sound classroom assessment.(1) Without a crystal clear vision of the meaning of academic success and without the ability to translate that vision into high-quality assessments at the classroom, building, and district levels, I contended, we would remain unable to assist students in attaining higher levels of academic achievement.
Since then, several important assessment-related developments have unfolded that bear on the evolution of our collective assessment literacy. For this reason, I believe it is time to review and evaluate our progress.
To begin with, we can identify positive trends that promise to increase our understanding and use of high-quality assessment. For example, the business community and other major segments of our society have recognized that schools must do more than rank students from the highest to the lowest achievers. Rather, a growing demand for highly competent citizens has triggered the realization that schools must help a larger proportion of our students meet high standards of academic excellence. Evidence of this revised mission of schools can be seen in the highly visible lists of national, state, and local education goals. This demand for excellence fuels an intense need for high-quality classroom and large-scale assessments.
The desire for higher achievement for ever more students has forced us to define the meaning of academic success in ever clearer terms. Specialists in the academic disciplines continue working to define academic success in reading, writing, math, science, and foreign language, among others. These sharper definitions provide a far stronger focus for high-quality educational programs and assessments than we have ever had before.
Yet another important positive development has seen performance assessment become an essential ingredient in a complete school assessment program. We have begun to understand how many of our most important achievement targets take the form of skills and capabilities that require assessment by means of observation and the exercise of judgment. For this reason, we have begun to conduct the research and development efforts required to learn how to use performance assessment effectively.
In addition, some major assessment programs have acknowledged...
